[Editor: This article, regarding the Gold Fields’ Commission of Enquiry and the Miner’s Right, was published in The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.), 10 May 1855.]
The law of the gold fields.
Another of the bills originating in the report of the Gold-fields Commission was yesterday read a second time. We regret to add that it was yesterday also that the bill was first laid upon the table of the Council Chamber. The bringing in, and the first reading, were, as usual, mere matters of form, and accomplished several weeks back; and since then, though the “Bill to Amend the Laws Relating to the Gold-fields” has constantly figured upon the notice paper, successive postponements have occurred with respect to the second reading. Many circumstances may have justified delay so far, but it is difficult to conceive any justification for the delay that has occurred in printing the bill.
It is a most convenient practice to make the occasion of the second reading that on which all discussion of the fundamental principles of a measure is to take place. Although there is nothing absolutely to prevent members from reconsidering the general principle in committee, they are generally twitted with going over old ground, if, at this stage, they discuss more than arises in debating the details, clause by clause; and it would be decidedly convenient if the course adopted in laying bills before the Council permitted this order of procedure to be strictly maintained. If, however, members never see a bill until a few minutes before they are called on to vote upon the second reading, it is quite impossible for them to perceive and understand the general tenor, purpose, and effect, as they ought to do, before being supposed to commit themselves thereon — as they ought to be — when voting upon the second reading. The more important the measure, of course the more important does this observance become; and we believe that the “Bill to Amend the Laws Relating to the Gold Fields,” is in this respect, and with reference to the interests to which it relates, not even second to the bill for granting representation to the diggers. The want of opportunity to consider this measure maturely, to which as we contend, the Council has been improperly exposed, has also of course weighed upon ourselves. We have, however, had at least an hour or two longer than was granted to members prior to the second reading, and having taken advantage of that interval, we feel persuaded that the general tendency of the measure will be found in the highest degree beneficial. That portion of the bill which possesses the greatest importance and the greatest novelty, relates to the establishment of certain local courts, empowered to frame regulations for the working of the several fields in which they are held, for determining “the extent and position of any claim, the conditions on which it shall be worked, and the application and use of any machinery, &c. &c.” These courts are also to decide questions of disputed mining partnerships, and are to be furnished with due powers to summon and examine witnesses, and to punish disobedience and contempt. The proposed constitution of these courts appears to be broad and popular. They are to consist of nine members each, to be freely elected by all persons on the district possessed of the “miners rights.”
This “miner’s right” itself deserves a word or two of praise, by the way. It appears to us to have been one of the happiest suggestions of the Gold-fields Commission, and will, we have no doubt, be of great service in all legislation on mining subjects. At the risk of repeating that with which the majority of our readers are no doubt acquainted, let us, for the sake of the sake of the minority, derivate what this “miner’s right” is.
The miner’s right system is a system of licensing, but one wholly free from the objections to the abominable process hitherto in force and now happily exploded. The proposal of the Commission was to charge every miner £1 per annum for a license, conferring on him not merely the privilege of mining, but the franchise and all those rights of self-government which the bill yesterday read a second time, and others yet to be introduced, will give to the gold-diggers. The fee, in fact, is to be a mere registration-fee, and the Commission recommend that no steps whatever should be taken to enforce its payment on the part of those who do not choose to pay it. All who neglect to pay it will be, however, in a position of semi-outlawry. They will have no locus standi in disputes about claims, but will be mere vagrants on the diggings — unpunished, indeed, but unprotected. They will have no franchise, and no voice is in the election of members of the local courts. Under these circumstances there is little doubt that ninety-nine out of a hundred diggers will voluntarily take out the miner’s right; and the hundredth may be usefully let alone, to point the moral of his obstinacy in his unrecognised and vagabond position.
Before quitting this portion of the subject, we would call the attention of Members of Council to the seventh clause of the “Bill to Amend the Laws Relating to the Gold-fields,” which, we take it, needs some alteration. As it at present stands, it does not leave neglect to take out the miner’s right punishable only in the negative way we have described. The clause does not, indeed, provide for enforcement of the trifling registration-fee, and we presume such a step, with its concomitant evils, would never be attempted. Yet the clause, if passed, would permit positive punishment to be inflicted for neglect to take out the miner’s right; and this seems to us to be an infraction of one of its main advantages. The self-adjusting principle of the miner’s right is one of its best and most fundamental characteristics, and ought not to be in the least infringed. A slight alteration of the seventh clause will put this matter to rights.
The miner’s right being what we have described, every one possessing it is to be eligible to become a member of the local court, and will have a vote in all elections of members for the court of the district in which he commonly resides. The elections are to take place in the following manner:— The chairman (who is to be the only member of the court appointed by Government) is to give not less than a week’s, nor more than a fortnight’s, notice of a public meeting to be held for the purpose of the election. At the meeting any one possessing a miner’s right may be proposed and seconded by two persons equally qualified, and, if approved by a majority of the meeting, he is to be considered duly elected as one of the nine members of the court. This process is to be repeated until the required number is made up. If the mere process of holding up hands is not conclusive as to the sense of the majority of the meeting, a regular division is to take place, and any one producing his miner’s right may insist that any other person whom he suspects to be unqualified shall produce his qualification before being permitted to vote.
In one respect alone — and that in a matter of detail — does this scheme appear to us defective on the surface. Supposing more than nine candidates to be in the field, there would be a regular scramble to be first proposed. The best and most favorite man might be excluded because some inferior ones obtained earlier chances of nomination. To make this portion of the measure complete, it will certainly be necessary to provide some means for obtaining a complete list of all candidates before the election of any; so that if more than nine be proposed, each elector present shall have an opportunity of picking out his favorite nine. The nine candidates having the majority of votes would then be declared elected, as in the common case when a committee is being balloted for at a public meeting.
It is well worth while to make this portion of the measure as complete and perfect as it can be made; for it introduces upon the gold-fields the invaluable principle of local self-government in a simple and practical shape. These courts will be even more free from all objection than the local councils to be established under the new Municipalities Act. A time-honored principle has been applied to the new circumstances of the gold-fields, and the proposed courts will be the simple and natural emanation therefrom. As proposed to be constituted, there will be no trumpery or parade about them. They are the plain growth arising from the application of an old principle on new ground. We look forward to their operation with the highest anticipations. They will not only afford the means for settling vexed questions, making useful local regulations, and doing much direct good of that kind, but, regarded as a political-educational institution, their value must be very highly rated. They also seem calculated to provide the precise kind of political safety-valve that Englishmen all over the world require; and when the miners find themselves represented in the Legislature, regulating their local affairs through the medium of these courts, and freed for once and ever from the tyranny of the Jacks-in-office, under whose yoke they have been so long rankling, we may feel assured that the diggers will both cease to be, and to feel themselves, an oppressed caste, compelled to seek in the wild outbursts of insurrection, redress for grievances which they ought not to bear, but towards the cure of which there have hitherto been no constitutional paths.
Source:
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.), 10 May 1855, p. 4
Editor’s notes:
Council = the Legislative Council (the upper house of parliament in the various colonies and states of Australia)
Jacks-in-office = plural of “Jack-in-office”: a self-important minor bureaucrat, functionary, or official, especially one who is insolent, officious, petty, or rude (the term may be spelt as “jack-in-office” or “Jack-in-office”)
locus standi = (Latin, meaning “place of standing”) the capacity, legal standing, or right to appear (or to bring or file a legal action) in a court of law (or before a ruling body) on a particular issue or matter; having a legal standing which gives one the right to be heard in a court of law
See: 1) “The Concept of Locus Standi”, LawTeacher.net, 30 September 2021
2) Samreen Saba, “Locus Standi”, LinkedIn, 8 June 2023
3) “Standing (law)”, Wikipedia
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